18. Chapter 18
Chapter 18
Sage
‘When words can’t be spoken, one must rely on the body.’
That was the first thing my professor in my Nonverbal Communication lesson told us students, and I was grateful Venom required us to take the class. Not only had I been taught how to use tactical hand signals and eye contact as a way of communication, but also how to understand a person’s body language.
In most social situations, I’d never really used the skill, but as we sat around the fire waiting for Winnie to relay information, I noticed the shift in his demeanor and his back stiffening. I immediately focused on his body, wondering what threat he had observed.
Over the years, Lyric and I had mastered our own version of nonverbal communication. It was easy since we were trained, but even easier because we knew each other very well.
When Ravage’s mannerisms also changed, I gave Lyric the “look” to let her know something was happening. Though I was unsure of what alerted them, I didn’t care. I trusted Winnie with my life. And when I finally realized it was Nellie, I was furious—and secretly hoped I was the one that got to kill her.
Once Ravage confirmed the meeting was over, everyone started dispersing in different directions. Lyric followed me toward my cabin, but instead of going in, we snuck around the side of it and rounded the back, heading into the darkness.
Peach lived only two cabins down, so we arrived at her place pretty quickly. The outside light was off when we stepped onto the porch. I slowly cracked the door open and we slid in.
“What are you doing here?” Vivi asked before I even shut it.
She was sitting in a large green upholstered recliner, holding baby Scarlet. Standing on one side of the chair was Kimber who wore a confused expression, and on the other side was someone I wasn’t expecting to see.
Laren locked her heated gaze on me, not even attempting to hide her hatred. She had been the wife of Luka’s brother, Andrei, before I staked him in an alley on my induction night.
The first time she’d met me at the Save church, I had slightly feared for my life. Ultimately, Laren had told me the only reason she wouldn’t kill me was because she wouldn’t do to Luka what I did to her. At the time, I was unsure what she meant, but I’d eventually figured it out.
When I had killed Andrei, I had unknowingly also killed their bond. After seeing the pain both Vivi and Peach carried, and learning more about the feelings that came with a bond, I felt even worse about my heinous act.
Even though she’d visited the camp every few weeks since I’d been here—why, I didn’t know—she never came within twenty feet of me. I wasn’t sure if it was because she struggled to keep the promise of not killing me and didn’t want to tempt herself, or if it was the mere fact that she couldn’t look at the person who ruined her entire life.
Either way, I didn’t blame her.
Laren drew her glaring away from me and tramped into the kitchen.
“The meeting was stopped,” I mumbled. “I don’t know what—”
The door opened, hitting me in the ass, and I quickly moved aside so the others could enter. Peach and Marcus came in first with April and Zeke right behind them.
April sucked in a slow gasp when she saw the baby. “Is that her? She’s so little.”
“Would you like to hold her?” Vivi asked.
April approached slowly, her eyes wide and curious. She reached her hands out and one set of loving hands gently passed Scarlet to another.
Pure joy took over April’s expression as she instantly became nurturing, slowly swaying her hips. “She’s the most gorgeous baby I’ve ever seen.” Her hands were slow to move, gently pulling the baby’s pink cap back before cautiously running her hand across her red hair. “Does she have a name?”
“Scarlet,” Peach answered. “I’m tending to her for a bit until we figure out what to do with her.”
April looked up, her brows pinched. “What do you mean?”
“Her parents are . . .” Peach shook her head, unable to relay the sad story.
Sadness filled April’s eyes before they went back to Scarlet. “I’ll happily help with anything this precious baby needs.”
“Vivi, can you grab the car seat?” Peach asked. “We have a private meeting at Dani’s.”
“But I just got her to sleep.”
“I can watch her,” April interjected, her eyes filling with a fierceness I’d never seen from her before. “I’ll protect her. I promise.”
Peach and Vivi locked eyes, and after a few seconds, Peach nodded and Vivi got up from the recliner. “You can sit here. She just ate, so you should be good until we get back.”
April slowly lowered herself into the chair before waving her husband over. “Come look at how beautiful she is.”
Zeke was tall, so it only took him a few strides to get to them. “Hello, little one.”
It was an amazing sight, him towering over April and the baby with more admiration in his eyes than the world could possibly hold.
And . . . at that moment, even if Scarlet wasn’t theirs, April and Zeke became the parents they’d always hoped to be.
Emotions swirled in my chest and I drew my gaze toward Lyric to keep from feeling them, but it didn’t help. She happily wore her emotions, wiping a tear from her eye.
“Are we ready, Peach?” I asked, needing to leave a room filled with too much parental love when I missed my mom . . . and even my dad.
“Yeah. Laren, are you coming?”
I held my breath as I awaited the answer, hoping to not have to ride with a vampire who hated me.
“I’ll stay here with April, in case she needs anything.”
“Me too,” Kimber added. “You can fill us in when you get back.”
Knowing that April had her very large husband, a vampire, and a wolven staying with her made me feel confident leaving her and the baby here with a possible traitor lurking in our camp.
Peach checked outside and no one was around, so we piled in my Jeep and headed to Dani’s place at the second camp.
Winnie held the door open as we entered, and my eyes went wide with the amount of people in the room.
To my right, Erik leaned against the beige wall by the hallway, his arms crossed snugly against his body, and Ravage was in the kitchen drinking a beer, his normal radiant smile absent.
To the left, Drag and Dani were sitting in matching recliners. Her expression worried as she rocked the baby. Lane was on the brown leather couch across from them and gave me a nervous smile before turning his attention elsewhere.
“What’s up, Marcus?” he shouted. “How’ve you been?”
“Much better since I get to see your sexy ass.”
I ignored the men being men and took a seat on the floor, leaving a space on the couch for Peach and Marcus. A few seconds later, Lyric sat next to me, and playfully nudged her shoulder into mine. When my gaze met hers, I could see the yearning she carried for Winnie. I nudged her back, bringing a small smile to her face.
The room quieted and the air surrounding us seemed to thicken, becoming stale. Not in an unclean sense, more like there were lots of secrets and worries about to be thrown around like confetti, but in a wearisome kind of way.
Attempting to stay calm, I focused my attention on Winnie since he was always chill, but that was a horrible plan. His hands were shaking as his eyes darted around the room, bouncing across each person before they landed on me.
“Your uncle’s a freak.”
My anxiousness got pushed aside by confusion. “What are you talking about?”
“We saw Ben at the Venom compound,” Erik said, uncrossing his arms, his posture stiffening. “Winnie thinks he’s not human anymore.”
I opened my mouth but memories of feeling inadequate had stolen my words.
Despite him being my uncle, Ben and I had never developed any true familial connection. Being the younger of the two brothers, he was second in command in the Venom society, below my dad in rank. Like some leaders, Ben issued orders with no respect for us, yet demanded our obedience, especially from me, as if he were royalty.
During my childhood, he’d say my father failed their bloodline since he’d never had a son, and other hurtful things within earshot. He’d also say that he should be the one running Venom in the future, not me. Whenever it happened, my dad would casually brush it off and switch to a different topic.
The moment I turned sixteen, I was determined to win my uncle’s approval. I trained harder than anyone else and even attempted to shrink my personality to fit into a tiny box just to make him happy. My hard work was in vain since Ben continued to hate me.
By the time I’d reached eighteen, I stopped caring what he thought of me and began to stick up for myself. Obviously, my tendency to speak my mind along with what he called “disobedience” led to frequent arguments and created tension during family events.
About two years ago, my uncle decided to step down, pushing Marcus into second in command, and Sorin into third rank. According to my mom, Ben had left because he moved to a Venom location in another state, stepping down to a fourth rank commanding officer position, which never made sense.
Why would someone so power hungry want to be lower ranking?
I’d never fully understood why he made that decision or why he hated me. I was just grateful that he was gone . . .
Until now.
Lyric nudged me, reminding me to answer Erik, but fear had halted my words, and I slowly shook my head. “What?”
“When we snuck into Venom—”
“I heard what you said, Erik, but what the hell is my uncle doing here?”
Winnie dropped one knee to the floor, making eye contact with me. “Listen, I can’t answer that question, but I can tell you something bigger is going on. VRC is making some kind of super hybrid or something. Your uncle smelled like a vampire and a wolven blended into one, which is something Ravage said he’d never heard of before.”
“Me neither,” Peach added. “And I’ve been around the longest.”
“And I might as well rip off the bandaid, Sage Stick. He also—”
“What?” I asked again, since apparently my brain took a leave of absence.
My uncle was back and possibly some kind of supernatural creature? Anything Winnie had to say after that, was completely irrelevant.
Winnie’s forehead pinched. “Are you okay?”
I turned my head toward Drag. “Can someone make a wolven or are they only born?”
“Born. But it appears that VRC has possibly figured out how to convert a human into a wolven. I can’t help but wonder if he can shift.”
“I . . .” I shook my head again, attempting to remove the fear eating at me. If my uncle hated me when we were both human, I couldn’t imagine what he’d do if he was a supernatural.
Lyric rubbed her hand down my arm and whispered, “Slow your breaths.”
I needed time to process everything I’d learned, so I gave Lyric one of our looks, letting her know I was in no condition to continue this conversation at the moment.
“Can we talk about the possible rat for now?” Lyric asked, and Winnie nodded.
“I don’t know if anyone else has noticed some odd things about Nellie, but I sure have.”
Winnie pulled on his gauged earlobes as he explained his concerns with Nellie. As everyone weighed in their opinions, I tuned out their words as thoughts clouded my head.
Do hybrids exist? And if so, are they stronger than normal vampires or wolven? Did Venom make them? Is my dad one? Did Ben turn so he could kill me? Does he want to kill me?
The internal questions were rapid, each one adding to our already extensive list of potential dangers, keeping me from staying calm.
Once I’d found out Luka was alive, my only goal had been to save him, and all would be right in the world, but with hybrids mixed into the equation, that looked more and more impossible.
The world will never be safe, I realized. I need to broaden my goals beyond just my happiness.
Our mission to infiltrate VRC and rescue Luka wouldn’t be enough. We needed to retrieve classified files to uncover the truth about Venom and the VRC’s secret activities.